2021 年 70 巻 1 号 p. 5-10
Frequency f and strain rate ̇εn dependences of linear dynamic shear modulus were measured for glassy epoxy network during uniaxial stretching processes. With increasing strain εn, the storage shear modulus G´ slightly decreased to a steady value appearing at post-yield strain-hardening range of strain. The loss shear modulus G˝ markedly increased in the same strain range, where G´ decreased, and then leveled off. These variations of G´ and G˝ indicated that the glassy structure in the epoxy network changed into more unstable ones by stretching. When compared at a fixed condition of α= ̇εn/f, the functional relation between strain-induced increment of G˝ and εn was identical independently of ̇εn of stretching. Thus, frequency dispersion of the nonlinear relaxation was found to be determined only by the relative distance from the timescale of deformation and the amount of imposed strain. Whereas the decrement of G´ at a fixed α was not superposable when plotted against εn, because of (εn ) ̇ dependence of their steady values. The variation of G´ was affected not only by destabilization of glassy structure due to deformation. The observed f and ̇εn dependences of G´-εn and G˝-εn relations for glassy epoxy network during stretching were qualitatively the same as those observed for poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). Thus, the dependence on εn, f and ̇εn of the nonlinear relaxation under constant-speed deformation conditions reported here is presumably universal for glassy polymers. The strain-induced variation of G´ and G˝ was smaller for epoxy network compared with PMMA stretched exactly at the identical condition. This result indicates that glassy structures in the epoxy network before stretching are more unstable because of constraint arising from crosslinked molecular structures.